17.mai!!!

Well I know I said that I was going to write only in Norwegian until the test but this post is going to be a lot more interesting for everyone back in the states so it makes more sense to write it in English. Anyway this post is mostly going to be about the Norwegian National Holiday syttende mai (17th of May).

For those that don't know it is a very big deal in Norway, everyone puts Norwegian flags out in their yard, anyone that owns a bunad (the traditional dress of Norway) wears it, basically everything is shut down except for a few stores. They have this parade called a barnetog that is a parade that is made up of children from every elementary, middle and high school in the area.

So of course I joined in and I must say it was a lot of fun, I actually carried the school banner which was an interesting way to join in. So I got to walk in front of everyone else from the school carrying this giant banner. The parade goes for a few kilometers before ending at a big park area where there is a few speeches along with singing of the national anthem and the town song.

After the parade is finished everyone goes to different areas of the town to elementary schools for different little activities and stuff there. Last on the main agenda for everyone is the russetog, which is a parade with only those that are russ (the last year students in high school).

The russ is a totally Norwegian thing, they all buy these red pants (they can also be blue, black and green but red is the most common), and they wear them from no later than May 1st all the way to the 17th. The two weeks they wear these pants there is lots of partying, crazy antics and a lot of other nutty stuff.

It is a really funny thing to see and something that you won't see anywhere else in the world. So for their part of the 17th they walk through a different part of town, but almost all of them carry around squirt guns and these things that are called russekort. Russekorter are these little cards that most everyone carries around and hands out to kids who try to see who can get the most.

A lot of the kids along the sides also had water balloons and squirt guns to spray the russ. It ends at the same park as the other parade but instead has a bunch of these buses that some of the russ have saved to buy and make improvements on, with lots of loud music and more crazy people. It is definitely a cool thing to see.

That pretty much finishes all of the stuff that happens in town for that day. Next for me was a dinner party with my host family at our house, not super exciting but it was cool getting to talk with some different people. Later that night I headed out with a friend, watched the fireworks when they went off then headed back home to sleep.

Now that covers Tuesday the 17th, the rest of the week was pretty chill, just school, some training and hanging out with friends. I did also see the new Pirates movie on Wednesday night, pretty sweet movie I have to say, cool in 3D also! :D

Well that is it for now, hope you enjoy see you next time!
Jon